When Ms Felistus Nyambeki, 42, left her home in Nyamache Sub-county, Bobasi, Kisii County for Saudi Arabia on December 14, 2021, she promised her three children that she would give them the best of life and her parents that she was determined to change their lives.
It's now two years and two months later and all the family is left with is the pain of never speaking to Ms Nyambeki and an endless game of cat and mouse played on them by the agents who took her to Saudi Arabia.
Speaking to the Nation, Ms Joyce Moraa (mother) and Mr Fredrick Morema (uncle) said Ms Nyambeki went silent just a week after she called to inform them that she had arrived safely.
"A week after she told us that she had arrived safely in Saudi Arabia, she went silent and reaching her has been an uphill," said Mr Morema.
It was Mr Morema, who uses a smartphone, who alerted Ms Moraa that her daughter was no longer responding to messages and he suspected something was wrong.
Three months later, Mr Morema's concerns grew and they decided to contact the travel agency that had arranged her trip to Saudi Arabia.
A tearful Ms Moraa found it difficult to recount her ordeal as she accused the agency, identified as Golden Arena International, of playing a game of cat and mouse with her.
Documents show that Ms Moraa travelled to Saudi Arabia on a tourist visa that was due to expire in 90 days. Mr Mokaya has not replied to our queries.
"How can my daughter survive in this country with an expired visa and yet the agency that took her there is not willing to cooperate? This is not right and I am now in the dark, not knowing if she is alive or dead," said Ms Moraa.
On November 28, 2022, Mr Mokaya found himself under pressure when the family visited his office with all their children and threatened to cause chaos.
He gave them a phone number to use to communicate with the woman, and it was then that she opened up about the suffering she had endured.
"When she heard it was me, she started crying and asked us to help her get out of Saudi Arabia because she was being attacked and tortured," Mr Morema said.
He said the woman told them that anyone who wanted to beat her would do so at will and that she should not complain.
"That was the last time she spoke to us and since then she has been silent. We are now in the dark and all efforts to seek help have been fruitless," said Mr Morema.
The family is now regretting why they allowed their loved ones to leave the country and seek work abroad.
Meanwhile, Ms Gladys Wanjiku Ng'ang'a, who went silent just weeks after landing in Saudi Arabia, has been found hospitalised there.
Like Ms Nyambeki, when Ms Wanjiku left the country for Saudi Arabia in December 2019, she promised her Form Two son that she would change his life and that of her parents.
But a week after landing in the foreign country, she told her mother, Zipporah Wanjiru Ng'ang'a that she had fallen ill.
She also told her mother that the challenge was that she was not allowed to leave the house by her employer, who said that if she went to the hospital, she would be infected with Covid-19 and spread it to the whole family.
Ms Ng'ang'a said well-wishers, Kenyans living in the Gulf state, managed to get her to hospital.
"That was the last I heard of her until today when I saw my daughter again with the help of the media and officials of Haki Afrika," she said.
According to her, Ms Wanjiku's son has been asking about his mother's whereabouts and she has been unable to give him an answer.
The Nation has established that she was first taken to Riyadh First Health Cluster - King Khalid Hospital - ALKHRJ where she was not admitted because there was no bed available for a long stay.
"She is currently in the hospital undergoing treatment, but she is not able to speak, she can only hear," said Ms Ng'ang'a.
Mrs Ng'ang'a appealed to well-wishers and the public to help the family bring their daughter back to the country for treatment.
